Gun safety rally sparks controversy in Langhorne

Monday

Members of the Bucks Coalition for Gun Safety held a pre-Mother's Day Gun Safety Rally on Monday that started out peacefully with a march from the Bucks County Peace Center in Langhorne.

But when the group reached its destination — the office of state Rep. Frank Farry — they were confronted by 30 members of the Firearm Owners Against Crime and other gun supporters, and feathers flew.

The coalition that sponsored the march also delivered a letter to Farry, calling on him to “rethink” his position on gun issues, claiming that he supported proposed legislation that they claim favors the gun lobby.

Farry, in a telephone call Monday night, refuted the assertions in the letter. He said the coalition leaders knew he would be in Harrisburg on Monday and said the group was deliberately misleading the public.

The Mother’s Day theme represents all mothers who have lost children to gun violence, said Cathy Leary, of the Coalition for Peace Action, one of the groups under the Bucks Coalition umbrella.

Leary said that the goal of the marchers is to pressure legislators to push for universal background checks for gun buyers.

“I support the Second Amendment. We just want to see the loophole closed that allows the purchase of long-barrel guns without the check,” Leary said.

Mary Avino, who founded Bucks Against Gun Violence in 2012 in response to the massacre that killed 20 school children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut, took her crusade a step further by putting politicians on notice that there will be a political cost for legislators who don’t support the organization’s goals.

“If they don’t vote for gun safety legislation, we’re going to vote them out of office,” said Avino, whose group has grown from 30 to 140 members since its founding.

A line on the flier announcing the rally read in bold red letters, “Rep. Frank Farry has not supported gun safety bills,” an assertion Farry took issue with. He also refuted certain sections of the letter that the coalition delivered to his office.

In the letter, the coalition accuses Farry of supporting HB 921, which “would eliminate the Pennsylvania background check system, and HB 2011, which allows gun owners to sue municipalities like those that forbid guns in playgrounds or those that require the reporting of lost and stolen guns.”

Farry said that the bills are still in committee and will not be voted on in the near future. The law on background checks will not be eliminated but transferred to national enforcement. The second bill makes sense, he said, because legal chaos would result if the 2,200 municipalities in Pennsylvania enacted their own laws.

“Some things belong on the state level," he said.

The 30 participants in the rally carried signs with messages like “Support Gun Safety” and “Support Universal Background Check." But when the group reached Farry’s office, several blocks down Maple Avenue from the staging ground, they were met by gun supporters, some attempting to discuss the issue, others lobbing catcalls and insults.

Leary called for a moment of silence for victims of gun violence, but that was interrupted by continuing jeers from gun enthusiasts. One coalition member was constantly shouted down by a gun supporter chanting, “You’re a liar, you’re a liar, you’re a liar.”

During one moment, Sheryl Kisselman talked about her 20-year-old son Corey, who was shot to death by a roommate in 2012.

“I can’t wrap my mind around all these politics involved in making changes — small changes,” she started to say before she was interrupted by a member of the pro-gun group shouting, “With all due respect, ma'am.” He was cut off by an onlooker.

Toward the end of the 45-minute event, the coalition members turned their backs on their detractors and silently walked back to the peace center.

“This is what these people have to put up with, and they are brave to do so,” said one coalition member. “Limiting gun violence only makes sense.”

Elizabeth Fisher is a correspondent and can be reached through editor Rose Venditti-McIver at rmciver@calkins.com.

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